[tacticalogic]

Something I've been wondering - if you could capture a round that's been fired from one gun (in a water tank, for instance), reload it, and fire it from another gun, would you end up with a pattern that didn't match either one?

[snarkpup]

Something I've been wondering - if you could capture a round that's been fired from one gun (in a water tank, for instance), reload it, and fire it from another gun, would you end up with a pattern that didn't match either one?

Probably wouldn't work. No "gas seal".

The first firing will swage rifling grooves into the bullet. On the second firing, high-pressure gas from the propellant would leak around the bullet through the grooves while it is travelling down the barrel. Depending on the extent to which the rifling on the second shot lines up with the rifling from the first shot, I would expect wild variance in gas seal, with wildly-varying velocities and wild inaccuracy. White-hot, high-pressure gas leaking by the bullet may also damage the sides (and this can be significant even on the first shot with cast lead bullets).